I already have a few of these types of “squid” power strips and they’re fantastic. But imagine if each one had a wi-fi chip so you could control the flow of power to each plug from an iPhone (or computer) app? That’s right – total mindfuck.

This way you could tag each individual outlet in your home (presumably you’d have a few of these babies scattered around) letting you turn anything on or off (or dim it) while either not getting off your ass or from another location. You could also program the iPhone app’s acceleratometer (assuming Apple lets us run background apps eventually) to detect if you’re out and about, turning off a specified set of lights and electronics in your home. …Or if the software hooked into the iPhone’s microphone you could make it a modern overpriced version of “The Clapper.” …Or you could have it automatically adjust the lighting based on the mood of the music it hears. …Or you could just talk to the damn thing. “Turn off the goddamn coffee machine.”

There are tons of other cool things you could do with this (many of which are marginally, if at all useful), but the possibilities are so endless that to me it just seems like a good fit.

I’m sure similar things exist already, but my hunch is that if someone came along and presented a polished, cheap, turn-key system they’d make a killing. Just not in this economy.

Comments (4)

I just saw this article in Linux Journal. I think it might be what you’re looking for. I actually thought of starting a business that did this using Linux about 10 years ago. Now they finally have some good products to do it!http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/10302

ZenSys i Denmark have been selling exactly that for more than ten years, you can e.g. remote control your coffee machine to start brewing when you leave the office or have the music change according to your mood by saying “depressed” or “happy”, …

Posted by Don Alberto on September 16, 2009 at 12:41 pm

+0

Yes, and when you want to see them in action watch “Electric Dreams (1984)” “http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087197/” …

PS: nice blog!

Posted by Vuli on November 30, 2009 at 9:21 am

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About Mike Solomon

Welcome to my website and personal playground, where I've been publishing thoughts and random creations since the late 90s. These days I work at Hearst Digital Media in New York City. I also recently created the first pay-per-character publishing platform, Bitcoin Megaphone. See more of my work at solomania.com.

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